Nederland path project threatens beloved trees

Homeowner, cherishing privacy, to argue to reconsideration of project

Tori Carpenter stands under two trees that may be taken down to provide a wider street and parking in Nederland, Colo. (MARK LEFFINGWELL / Daily Camera)

A Nederland homeowner is concerned that two 30-foot blue spruce trees in her front yard could be cut down this summer to make way for two parallel parking spots along the road.

Tori Carpenter, 52, wants Nederland officials to redesign the plan for a project called NedPeds, or the Nederland Pedestrian Enhancement Design and Nederland Pedestrian Transportation and Storm Water Management Improvement Project, so that the two trees in her front yard can be saved.

"I'm super private and it's just so invasive," Carpenter said. "(The trees) create so much buffer and privacy and mountainy feel at that cabin. I moved up here to be in a small mountain town where I could have privacy and not have the government in my business. It feels very unpleasant to me and very city-like and not the reason I moved up here to live in a tiny town on a tiny street in Nederland."

The Nederland Development District Authority and Nederland Planning Commission have been working on the NedPeds project plan for nearly 18 months, said town administrator Alisha Reis, and now the plan is set for final approval by the Board of Trustees at a meeting Tuesday.

NedPeds is being funded in part by a $486,000 grant Nederland received in April 2012 from the Denver Regional Council of Governments. The project will create an 8-foot wide "multimodal pathway" through town that connects the library to the post office and will help mitigate storm water drainage issues along 2nd Street, Reis said.

The project would create a stable surface with a consistent grade, a project official said. The current hard-packed dirt road changes each time the town sees heavy rains, officials said. A slightly curved section of the new road would cause drivers to go slower, making the neighborhood safer, officials said. The project also includes the installation of porous, or permeable pavers, which help absorb water than than causing it to run off toward homes and businesses.

With the board's approval, construction was set to begin in late spring or early summer, Reis said.

The amount of grant money the town received from the Denver Regional Council of Governments is the same amount Nederland received and then rejected in early 2012 for the second phase of a sidewalk project, said Nederland Mayor Joe Gierlach. After the board rejected that plan, the town reinvented the plan to come up with NedPeds, which still fits within the criteria for the grant, he said.

After months of planning, Pat Everson, chairwoman of the Nederland Development District Authority, said the entire project could be "hijacked" because of Carpenter's late concerns.

"This is what makes me sad," Everson said. "This wonderful project that has had so much community impact, that was so seriously understood and desired by the community, is now being hung up on two trees."

Carpenter started an online petition earlier this month and crowd-funding effort to help save her trees. She also hired a private arborist, who last week analyzed the two trees in her front yard and deemed them to be completely healthy.

Being a 'guardian of the natural world' not always convenient

Though Nederland leaders have been working on the NedPeds project since summer of 2012, Carpenter said the first time she heard about it was in October 2013.

She said she has owned her home at 155 E. 2nd Street for about six years, and has recently been renting it out while trying to sell the property. Carpenter said she took the house off the market as soon as she learned about NedPeds.

"I want to step up and be a representative of these trees right now," she said.

Carpenter commutes to Louisville every day for her job as a software development manager, and said that could be why she hadn't heard about the project sooner. She said her renters may have received fliers about the project, but she never received any information about it personally.

"They made an assumption that by not being involved, I didn't care," she said. "We're a small town. We're not a big city. My (post office) box is on file with the town. That really concerns me."

If the project is completed as planned, Carpenter said she will lose both trees and will have about four feet of space between her front door and the road, where cars will be able to parallel park, something she's not comfortable with as a private person.

Carpenter said she is sorry to find herself "at odds" with the project because she's on board with improving Nederland.

"I'm calling for more research and an environmental impact study," she said. "I don't think the research has been done. It's shortsighted to come in and start clear-cutting because it's more convenient. Being a good guardian of the natural world and a steward for natural resources is not always convenient."

Everson said she's not sure how Carpenter didn't hear about the project sooner. She said in addition to passing out fliers, the process has been written up in the local press multiple times. Officials working on the project set up a design advisory team of 20 to 24 neighbors along the affected route. She said there were countless public meetings, often on the weekends so that residents who worked during the week could attend.

Even without project, trees don't have 'much of a good prognosis'

Carpenter said she plans to voice her concerns at the January Board of Trustees meeting, though technically the trees aren't on Carpenter's property, but in the town's right-of-way, said Conor Merrigan, a sustainability consultant for Denver-based C2 Sustainability who was hired by Nederland to be NedPeds project manager.

"In theory, the town could just take them down, but I think the one thing this project has demonstrated is a real sensitivity and a balancing act," he said.

If the Board of Trustees approves the plan with changes to the design, Everson said she doesn't know what will happen because the Nederland Development District Authority doesn't have any money left to go back and redo the design plans for the project.

If the project plan is redesigned to keep the two blue spruce trees, Everson said the trees' roots will probably still be damaged during construction. The trees have also repeatedly been "topped," or trimmed at the top, by Xcel Energy, Everson said, because several power lines run through them.

Some nearby homeowners worry that if a strong storm toppled the trees, the power lines would come down too, and many Nederland residents would be without power.

Everson said the trees completely block all sunlight from reaching Carpenter's home, and that it's possible the trees could topple onto the house. NedPeds should improve property values along the street, Everson said, and Carpenter could improve her own property value more if the trees were removed, free of charge, thanks to the project.

"I'm sorry personally about the trees myself, but when I took another look and went and walked it, they are misplaced trees," Everson said. "They're just in the wrong spot at the wrong time with those power lines. Even if we didn't do anything with them, the road would eventually kill them as well as the power lines. The trees going forward don't have much of a good prognosis."

Nederland has hired an ecologist to look at the broader environmental and ecological implications of NedPeds, including the impact of the two blue spruce trees Carpenter is concerned about.

Merrigan said that even if the Board of Trustees approves the plan as is, Nederland will find some way to make up for the two lost blue spruces, such as by planting trees elsewhere. Any large-scale project like this is going to require some sacrifice from affected neighbors, Merrigan said.

"Cutting down trees is always an emotional and very visible issue that people can really grab hold of," he said. "It's really important on this project in particular, especially because so much of it is going to be underground, to try and step back and take the whole wider sustainability perspective. It benefits the town, it benefits the entire neighborhood. That overall perspective is really important to keep in mind."

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